All persons who work in dusty environments are exposed to different types of health hazards such as fumes, gases and dust: these are known risk factors in the development of occupational diseases.
Cement dust exposure occurs commonly in the cement production and construction industries i.e. at both production mills and construction sites. Any regular contact of workers cement dust can cause skin and eye irritation, asthma and even allergic reactions; inhaled cement dust can causes lung function impairment, chronic obstructive lung disease, restrictive lung disease, pneumoconiosis and carcinoma of the lungs, stomach and colon; and, it has also been demonstrated that cement dust may enter into the systemic circulation and thereby impact upon organs and tissues of the body—such as the heart, liver, spleen, bone, muscles and hair—to ultimately affect their micro-structure and physiological performance.
Peters et al. “Personal Exposure to Inhalable Cement Dust among Construction Workers” Journal of Physics: Conference Series 151 (2009) 012054 documents the variable concentrations of inhalable dust to which workers are exposed depending on their role in cement production or use. Whilst plant workers are generally most exposed, persons involved in cement installation, recess milling and demolition are also certainly exposed at non-negligible levels. At the installation stage, powdered blends of cement, sand and different additives are mixed with water in situ, unfortunately causing a fine dust to infiltrate the ambient air.
This problematic effect at installation stage has been recognized in the art. For example, Ceresit Microgranulat Flex Plus (available from Cimsec) is a powdered, tile adhesive product in which finer, dust-forming cement particles are bound to form larger clusters or microgranules. Similarly, EP 0587383 (Halliburton Co.) describes a dry agglomerated cement material in which individual particles of cement are bonded together by a water-soluble binder material, typically a polyvinyl alcohol: this solid cement material is mixed with water to form a cement slurry, the water dissolving the binder to release the particles of cement which then hydrate.
EP 0432920 A2 (Rohm & Haas) describes a two-component (2K) coating composition for overlaying Portland cement concrete, the composition being a two component composition comprising: (1) a first, dry component which can be packaged and stored separately and which includes: a) at least one hydraulic cement, such as Type I or Type III Portland cement, and b) at least one epoxy resin; and, (2) a second, wet component including: (a) at least one synthetic film-forming, alkali-stable synthetic polymer latex, the latex polymer including ureido functional groups, and (b) at least on amine-functional epoxy curing agent, the curing agent being dispersible or soluble in water. The dry component including the epoxy resin can be mixed on site and in a predetermined ratio with the “wet” component including the amine-functional epoxy curing agent. The epoxy resin can bind the dust-forming, fine particles of the hydraulic binder but the author of this citation indicates that the contact of the epoxy resin with these fine particles should be minimized, where possible, to prevent over-sized clumps of binder from forming.